….was opened by the Deputy Mayor who arrived by bike (although it later transpired that it had been borrowed from her son. ) She talked about encouraging commuters to leave their cars at home ..but the remark about this leaving space for parents returning from driving their children to school suggests that the message has not fully got through. The Network Rail person’s emphasis on planning for future increase in demand was more welcome.

We get : lots of decent cycle parking – and there is space between the double decker racks to pull down the upper and load your bike from the end- , a pump which doubles as a maintenance stand and a chained set of tools all overlooked by a security camera with info on trains and weather on a monitor.

Clarendon school has been running a bicycle maintenance scheme since September 2010, teaching young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN), to refurbish second hand bikes. One hundred percent of profits from the resale of these bikes are reinvested into providing additional opportunities for young people with SEN. Students gain an AQA Unit Award in Cycle Mechanics as part of their experience.

If you are visiting the borough as a tourist, or if you have friends come to stay, what better way to see the borough than by bicycle. As part of our Better by Bike series we’ve collated a list of places where you can hire a bicycle in the borough. Get in touch via our Contact Form if you know of somewhere that we’ve missed.

They have hybrids and Bromptons for hire. They also have road bikes, useful if you want to do some laps of Richmond Park or further afield. The hire bikes are kept at Victoria, but with prior notice they can get them to their Sheen or Whitton shops.

As well as adult trail bikes they also have children’s bikes, children’s trailers and tag-alongs for very small children and baby seats (which attach to the adult bikes). They even have tandems for hire if you fancy a try. If you fancy emulating Bradley Wiggins, they have road bikes as well.

Our ‘Better by Bike’ series, allows us to share stories of local residents and their experiences on their bikes. This week, life long Twickenham resident Ginnette shares the story of what motivated her to set up a local bike tour company, Merry Pedaller Bike Tours, and her experiences along the way. You can find her website here.

If you’d like the opportunity of a guest spot on our website to write about anything local and cycling related, do get in touch.

Ever felt like you were in the wrong job and not getting job satisfaction? Well this is how I felt having been an electrician for 14 years – I felt I needed something else. After leaving the UK frankly pretty miffed with the country and its weather, I went and travelled for 6 months through some amazing places. However on my return I felt there was no place like home. Having lived in Twickenham all my life I realised what an amazing place I lived in and ok the weather was rubbish but actually we never get extremes like tornadoes, earthquakes, mud slides and intolerable heat waves – thankfully! Continue reading →

Recycling Unwanted Bikes and Bits
Perhaps you’ve just got a new bike and you’ve no room for the old one. Or maybe you’ve a few unused bikes lying around your garden shed. Rather than throw them in the skip, here are some places where you can recycle your bicycle as part of our Better by Bike series:

Kingston Eco-op Bike Recycling Project
Kingston Eco-op is a social enterprise for Kingston upon Thames which offers employment skills and training for disabled people and those at risk of social exclusion. As part of this, they collect unwanted bicycles for use by the bike recycling project. You can bring your unwanted bike along to their premises (which are open 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Tues – Fri or by appointment):